Current Employment by Industry (CES) data reflect jobs by "place of work." It does not include the self-employed, unpaid family workers, and private household employees. Jobs located in the county or the metropolitan area that pay wages and salaries are counted although workers may live outside the area. Jobs are counted regardless of the number of hours worked. Individuals who hold more than one job (i.e. multiple job holders) may be counted more than once. The employment figure is an estimate of the number of jobs in the area (regardless of the place of residence of the workers) rather than a count of jobs held by the residents of the area.

The Local Area Unemployment Statistics (LAUS) program is a Federal-State cooperative effort in which monthly estimates of total employment and unemployment are prepared for approximately 7,300 areas, including counties, cities and metropolitan statistical areas. These estimates are key indicators of local economic conditions. The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) of the U.S. Department of Labor is responsible for the concepts, definitions, technical procedures, validation, and publication of the estimates that State employment security agencies prepare under agreement with BLS. Estimates for the remainder of the substate labor market areas are produced through a building-block approach known as the "Handbook method." This procedure also uses data from several sources, including the CPS, the CES program, State UI systems, and the decennial census, to create estimates that are adjusted to the statewide measures of employment and unemployment. Below the labor market area level, estimates are prepared using disaggregation techniques based on inputs from the decennial census, annual population estimates, and current UI data

The Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW) Program is a Federal-State cooperative program between the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) and the California EDD’s Labor Market Information Division (LMID). The QCEW program produces a comprehensive tabulation of employment and wage information for workers covered by California Unemployment Insurance (UI) laws and Federal workers covered by the Unemployment Compensation for Federal Employees (UCFE) program.

The QCEW program serves as a near census of monthly employment and quarterly wage information by 6-digit industry codes from the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) at the national, state, and county levels. At the national level, the QCEW program publishes employment and wage data for nearly every NAICS industry. At the state and local area level, the QCEW program publishes employment and wage data down to the 6-digit NAICS industry level, if disclosure restrictions are met. In accordance with the BLS policy, data provided to the Bureau in confidence are used only for specified statistical purposes and are not published. The BLS withholds publication of Unemployment Insurance law-covered employment and wage data for any industry level when necessary to protect the identity of cooperating employers.

Data from the QCEW program serve as an important input to many BLS programs. The Current Employment Statistics and the Occupational Employment Statistics programs use the QCEW data as the benchmark source for employment. The UI administrative records collected under the QCEW program serve as a sampling frame for the BLS establishment surveys.

In addition, the data serve as an input to other federal and state programs. The Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) of the Department of Commerce uses the QCEW data as the base for developing the wage and salary component of personal income.

The U.S. Department of Labor’s Employment and Training Administration (ETA) and California's EDD use the QCEW data to administer the Unemployment Insurance program. The QCEW data accurately reflect the extent of coverage of California’s UI laws and are used to measure UI revenues; national, state and local area employment; and total and UI taxable wage trends.

The U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes new QCEW data in its County Employment and Wages news release on a quarterly basis. The BLS also publishes a subset of its quarterly data through the Create Customized Tables system, and full quarterly industry detail data at all geographic levels.

Long-term Occupational Projections for a 10-year time horizon are provided for the state and its labor market regions to provide individuals and organizations with an occupational outlook to make informed decisions on individual career and organizational program development. While occupational openings data are presented on an annual basis, numbers of annual openings may fall above or below the average for each year in the 10-year projections period. Data are not available for geographies below the labor market regions. Detail may not add to summary lines due to suppression of data because of confidentiality and/or quality.

Long-term Industry Projections for a 10-year time horizon are provided for the state and its labor market regions to provide individuals and organizations with an insight into future industry trends to make informed decisions on individual career and organizational program development. Data are not available for geographies below the labor market regions. Detail may not add to summary lines due to suppression of confidential data.